


Streams That Feed the River

by VenomQuill



Series: Stickmin Collection fics [4]
Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Capital Gains Ending | CG (Henry Stickmin), Cleaned 'em Out Ending | CEO (Henry Stickmin), Free Man Ending | FM (Henry Stickmin), Gen, Jewel Baron Ending | JB (Henry Stickmin, Little Nest Egg Ending | LNE (Henry Stickmin), Lots of other minor characters from all factions, Master Bounty Hunter Ending | MBH (Henry Stickmin), Multiverse Theory, Pardoned Pals Ending | PP (Henry Stickmin), Revenged Ending | R (Henry Stickmin), Special BROvert Ops Ending | SBO (Henry Stickmin), Stickmin Space Resort Ending | SSR (Henry Stickmin), Toppat 4 Lyfe Ending | T4L (Henry Stickmin), Toppat Civil Warfare Ending | TCW (Henry Stickmin), Toppat King Ending | TK (Henry Stickmin), Toppat Recruits Ending | TR (Henry Stickmin), Triple Threat Ending | TT (Henry Stickmin), Valiant Hero Ending | VH (Henry Stickmin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26576317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenomQuill/pseuds/VenomQuill
Summary: Henry was a very lucky, rather skilled man. In the span of a year, he had gone from a ruffian close to being on the street to the Chief of the Toppats! Or, had he taken down the Toppats and been pardoned of his crimes? No, he'd taken down their leader and then been pardoned. No, no, he'd stolen a giant ruby from the Toppats and fled. He had definitely been taken to a complex known as the Wall, and he had escaped. But had he escaped with a friend or betrayed her? Did he go back to the Toppats for aid, or was it Charles that had already been nearby? Of course, there was the inevitable question of... could all the above be correct?
Series: Stickmin Collection fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983670
Comments: 9
Kudos: 122





	Streams That Feed the River

**Author's Note:**

> Find it on dA: http://fav.me/de5kryw

Voices all around him, music stealing the noise of feet upon the floor and rumblings of machinery. Lights glowed, shining off jewelry, warming hats, and struggling to find a place on the once-clean white floor.

Henry grinned, a drink in his hand, his light blue eyes surveying the room. People he’d hardly known a short time gathered in revelry, celebrating a year’s anniversary of their escape and their newfound paradise in the sky. A place where no meddling government could touch them, and they could go wherever they wanted without even needing to touch the ground or dodge a flock of ducks.

“Henry!” the voice, feminine and touched with laughter, called beside him. “Come on, man! People are dancing!”

He looked to his best friend, who was ironically one of his newest, who claimed the title of _Right Hand Lady._ She grinned from beneath her lavender hat with a deep purple rose, strands of bright red hair escaping from behind her ear to whisk before her eyes. Ellie continued, “You can’t just _stay here!_ Have some fun!”

Henry chuckled, “I, uh… think I’ll let everyone else have fun. I don’t want to be too distracting.”

Ellie snorted and rolled her eyes, green as emeralds. “Please, Henry. That’s no excuse. I helped you, and you betrayed me.”

Henry lost his smile. “What?”

Now her eyes had changed. They were no longer bright with enthusiasm and amusement and perhaps a drink or two, but dark with revulsion and… hurt. The hat atop her head was no more.

The lights were gone.

The people were still there.

Henry looked around, his heartrate shooting sky high, as he searched the slightly thinner crowd, finding nothing short of disgust and feather-ruffled shock from his fellow Clan Members. _He was their leader. He had defeated Right Hand Man and Reginald, taking his power when Reginald admitted defeat and then throwing the government off their trail. He was taken to the Wall where he met Ellie and… abandoned her._

Reginald gasped. “ _What?_ Have you no honor? No dignity? Actions like this tarnish the Toppat name!” he spat and looked around, raising his voice so he was clearly heard by everyone within the Bridge. “Men! Is this really what we want out of a leader? He barged in here! Took control of the Toppat Clan for himself!” Henry found Thomas, who just stood there, confused, as if hearing whatever Reginald was ranting about in another language. Henry took a step back as Right Hand Man, puffed up just as his leader wished him to be, took a step toward him. Other once-friendly faces did the same. “He’s not worthy of being our leader. I say we throw him overboard! Who’s with me?” His voice became a yell and he punched the air.

Now, Henry’s movement was no longer his own.

He was grabbed and dragged and pushed toward the other end of the Bridge, struggling to just keep his head up as the crowd, after opening a wide door to the outside, shoved him onto the deck. A wrap around safety rail would have kept him safe, were it not for the piece of rail that was missing and replaced by a long plank.

Henry felt his actions become his own again as the crowd retreated back into the windless vehicle-home. Reginald stalked forward so that he was before them all, in his own light in the sun. Ellie was nearby, glaring daggers at Henry.

Thomas asked, still looking as lost as he was three minutes ago. “Why are we doing this? I thought Henry was a pretty good leader.”

Geoffrey took the pipe out of his mouth and said, “Yeah, you know, this doesn’t really feel–”

Right Hand Man cut him off. “Take any loyalists to the Brig!”

Off went Henry’s two biggest–perhaps only–supporters.

Reginald all but pushed Henry back, forcing him onto the plank. “Henry! You are hereby dethroned from your position as leader of the Toppat Clan.” He looked back, gaining all the more confidence when his right hand stepped up beside him. Reginald approached Henry and reached out to his hat. “I’m going to want that hat back, now.”

Without thinking, Henry grabbed the man’s forearm and ripped him off balance. The man fell with a scream, struggling to right himself. Right Hand Man jumped off the balcony without hesitation, his robotic legs turning into a jet as he did so. Henry turned ahead, one foot back and arms up in a defensive position, glaring at Ellie, daring her to come closer. _If they were going to toss him off the ship, he wasn’t going alone._

Ellie looked back and then held out her hands as Barbershop Bill tossed a rifle to her and grabbed one of his own. Alfonsho bristled and tensed, as if he was ready for a fight but not actually willing to bring it to Henry. Ellie swung the firearm around to point at Henry. “Jump. Or I’ll make you jump.”

Henry glanced around himself. There was no trickity-trick to get back on ship, no gun to defend himself, and even _less_ support now that he ousted Reginald, though Henry sorely doubted the man was even hurt. Ruffled, perhaps, but not hurt and definitely not dead. However…

Henry stood up straight, put two fingers to his head in a salute, and fell back. Ellie lowered her gun, smirking.

Henry was falling. He reached up to take his hat and–no, it was gone. He had no hat. His hat was somewhere in the ice and snow, forgotten and frost burnt. But he didn’t need a hat to fly, not through these warm winds with the jungle trees below him. He flipped around so he was parallel to the ground and he flew through the empty space. The jets on his wings whirred and growled as he moved through the air. Wind whipped his curly hair back, dragging over the slightly cool skin of his right arm and the metal that made up his left. Hatred, hot and pure as a stifled volcano, bubbled up inside of him. Rationality, fear, uncertainty… gone in the flames.

His eyes narrowed as he searched the jungle base. He was no longer leader of the Toppats. Reginald made that certain when he tossed Henry off the side of the ship, no doubt pretending it was because Henry’s scooter couldn’t make the distance. Well now, Henry tasted the irony and it was bitter and _delicious._ Reginald’s right hand was defeated by Henry and needed cybernetic repair to live. Now, the very augmentation technology that allowed Reginald’s right hand to survive brought back the herald of their doom.

There!

Henry spotted the massive red ship flying over the jungle. He banked so that he was now on a head-on collision course with the airship, glaring through the shatter-resistant glass toward the object of his defeat, his death, and now, the meaning of his life.

He crashed through the windshield, barreling into a body a little smaller than his own. Momentum could only get him so far, and he was forced to land, skidding a little, glaring up at Reginald. The man had hit the back of the Bridge with some force, his upper body denting the metal as he collided with it. Reginald forced his head up, opening his eyes only to stare straight into Henry’s. “Henry!”

Henry huffed as something hit hard in the chest and forced him back.

The metal object zipped back and connected to Right Hand Man’s wrist.

Bolstered, Reginald pointed to Henry. “Take him out, Right Hand Man!”

Right Hand Man slipped into an offensive stance, glowering at Henry with a hatred that matched his own. “Time for a li’l payback.”

_Well, don’t great minds think alike, huh?_

Henry’s left hand shifted and lengthened into a rapier. He held his sword arm up and back, ready to strike. He’d never engaged in sword play, but he did know the pointy end was supposed to be pointed at the enemy. Right Hand Man’s hand shifted as well into a much larger, wider sword that sank into the metal of the floor when it appeared.

Henry charged with a yell, ducking and dodging Right Hand Man’s strikes rather than parrying them. As the massive sword whistled over his head, Henry had a vague idea of what would happen to him if he tried something so foolish to the man heavier, stronger, and older than he.

Henry swung, his sword hitting Right Hand Man’s shoulder with a satisfying _clang!_ He tried to pull back, but found the weapon stuck. Right Hand Man smirked at him and threw him off. Henry hit the broken windshield, leaning on the metal for support as he looked up at his adversary, ready to pounce with the same look of hate and excitement of a lion.

Then, they were in the air. Right Hand Man barreled into him, throwing them both off the ship. Henry gasped and looked around. Air! He had air, way too much of it!

Right Hand man grabbed him as he shot up higher. “Time to finish you off…” he growled into his ear, tossing Henry up high with the flat of his blade. Henry, having no rocket thrust like Right Hand Man nor the actual experience and time of use to pull forth his own defense, merely kept himself stable and parallel to the ground. He would fall and turn that into a dive, at which point he could summon his wings and fly back to the safety of the airship.

But, no. No, there was no safety for him. His mission would not be complete until _this_ obstacle was overcome. Henry fell, curling his sword arm back with a loud battle-cry. Right Hand Man, who had done the same, zipped right past him.

_Shiink!_

Henry kept falling, grimacing as his arm snapped back so fast he heard an audible _crack!_ He hit the top of the ship _hard._ He got to his feet and looked down at the mangled piece of metal that was his left hand-sword. Henry looked up, finding Right Hand Man stunned and then slowly falling back. The man hit the top of the airship rather hard, digging his sword into the metal to keep from falling. The horrible scream of metal on metal accompanied the man as he managed to break momentum and slow to a stop. Right Hand Man stood up straight and ripped Henry’s sword from deep within his cybernetic eye.

“You… You!” he seethed, replacing the sword for a hand. A small glow of energy balled up in his palm and steadily grew larger. “I’m gonna delete you!”

At one point, Henry might have feared this. He might have feared the man before him, metal hand raised high with a steadily growing reddish ball of white-hot energy. But right now? Now, all he saw was the opportunity he had been sorely needing. If he died to achieve it, so be it.

The blue bulb on his left hand glowed. He leaped up high, letting a burst of air and heat from whatever machinery was in his spine to give him more height. Then, as Right Hand Man let go of whatever monstrosity he had created, Henry threw his hand out. The green energy zipped through the massive red ball, shooting straight through its center and dissipating it. When it hit the top of the airship, it swelled up bigger and bigger until finally dissipating, leaving a giant crater with the burnt husk of a man in the center.

Henry came down hard, kicking his foot through the burnt bone of what was once the man’s spine.

Right Hand Man’s remanence collapsed.

_One down, one to go._

Reginald held onto the pilot’s chair, the airship screaming and alarms wailing around him. “No! We’re losing altitude! I’ve gotta get out of here!”

Henry landed behind him.

Reginald spun around, a gun appearing in his hand. Henry was quicker, his left hand clasped down on Reginald’s so hard the flesh and bone strained beneath his grasp. The gun went off, hitting a random spot of metal behind Henry, before slowly turning back as the man, caught between Henry and the pilot’s seat, twisted his arm back.

“No!” Reginald’s eyes darted from place to place. Henry could _see_ the gears turning in his head, looking for some way out, some little trick or con or anything. But Henry was through with the lies, done being tricked, and done being _weak._ “What are you going to do?”

Henry spun Reginald around, letting go long enough for his hand–which transformed into a rather large stapler–to catch him by the middle and shoot. Reginald hit the metal wall above with a hard _thunk._ He squirmed in his place, but no matter how much force the slimy little weasel exerted, the metal clasp that held his abdomen just below his ribs would not let go. The man stopped struggling and looked down at Henry, defeated. “So, that’s it, then. You’re just going to leave me here to go down with the ship?”

Henry stood up straight and, with a smirk, saluted the man. But, as he made his way toward the front of the ship, there was a boom and hard _crack._ Henry gasped and stumbled forward, grabbing onto the back of the pilot’s seat for balance. He tried to pull himself up, but his spine refused to work, and instead electricity crackled in the wound left behind by Reginald’s bullet.

Reginald, his hat in one hand and a hidden gun in the other, smirked down at him. “Looks like we’ll be sharing this last right together!” The man’s twisted laughter curled and intertwined with the desperate wailing of the ship, which grew steadily louder and faster as they took a nosedive for the very rocket ship they had been planning on riding to safety.

The shrieking of metal on metal, stone breaking, trees cracking, the machines in which he stood upon and which was being hit burst in his ears in a chorus of pandemonium.

…

Henry lay in the dirt, dust and ash particles trickling into his lungs as he breathed in. Fire crackled around them. He looked up upon hearing a cough. Reginald, limp and burned and bleeding, looked down at him. “Well, you got us.” His beaten body shuddered in another cough. “Was it… worth it?” Reginald’s head fell. His abused body ceased its vain struggles.

Henry’s glare softened. The man was dead. Henry’s task was done. His revenge was complete.

Henry tried to get up, but his left arm slipped out from under him. When he tried to bring it back, or to even use it at all, it refused to respond. Henry attempted to get to his feet, but his back was hardly responsive, and he was on the ground. Groaning and coughing, Henry dragged himself toward the nearest tree, where a rather sturdy branch had been broken off. Using it as a support, Henry pulled himself to his feet and hobbled away, his breath in wheezes, his body trembling in exhaustion, the cybernetics in him broken.

Henry slumped down against a rock a very good distance from the wreckage. His body failed him, and he lost the crutch, thankfully landing in something like a sitting position. He rested against the rock and tipped his head back. A short break… that’s… all he would…

The man started, gasping a lungful of stale, smokeless air. He looked around, the ground no longer below him, both hands–made of flesh and skin rather than metal–hung above his head. His feet were a foot or two above what looked to be an airlock.

Henry’s dazed senses had hardly come back when he heard Right Hand Man’s cyborg voice from the TV. “You’ve gotta be pretty tired of waking up like this.”

Henry looked up. He was in a cramped space, made for himself and perhaps one person to walk around him. Half his view was of space and Earth, as half of his walls were glass, and the other half metal with a door. A large TV hung next to the door. “That’s right, it’s me!” Right Hand Man announced. “Bet you thought you took me out, didn’t you?” _What kind of immortality… no, wait… Henry didn’t kill this man, just defeated him. Henry had imprisoned Reginald in return for his freedom, and then ended up betraying another in return for it when captured. Well how’s that for irony?_

“Well, nobody gets away from the Toppat Clan. As soon as we got into orbit, I made sure to go down and capture you. Now, enjoy your stay.” With one last quiet, rumbling noise that resembled a laugh, the channel was lost, and the TV hissed into silence. Thankfully, it went quiet and didn’t make a hissing, warping static noise.

Henry tried to move his fingers, but found both hands encased in metal, with some sort of green energy glowing between them like handcuffs. A two-pronged metal thing hanging by a chain with a glowing green bulb on each end was just above that.

Henry… was going to need a miracle. He wouldn’t be able to break them, that was for sure. He could try touching the remote on the TV, but that only had a chance of unlocking the cuffs. It also had a chance of shooting him into space. Well, there was _one_ trick…

Henry took a deep breath and relaxed. He could feel the very air begin to crackle with energy around him. All he needed was to– _bzzzzzt!_ Electricity bolted through his body and the cuffs holding his hands. The metal snapped open as the energy locking them failed and Henry was dropped to the floor.

He shook his head and pulled himself up. Well, the chains were gone. Now to get through this door…

Henry dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a rather heavy, metallic purple hat. With a smile, he threw it on. As soon as the hat pressed down on his thick, curly hair, he felt his entire body… solidify. Was that the word? Despite his body going hard and shiny like metal, and now feeling very heavy, he still moved. Henry took the opportunity to punch the door. It bent inward as if hit by a sledgehammer. A few more punches and then Henry busted through the door with his shoulder. The Toppat that had been guarding the door, gun in hand now that something happened, hit the ground beneath him. Another Toppat, this one with a rather smelly cheese hat, stared at him. Henry bolted in the opposite direction, bullets whizzing past, some popping off his body like stones off a cliff.

He made it quite a ways down the hall, through the entire wing he might add, before stopping next to an open door labeled “ARMORY 7.” Huffing, he set a hand on the wall, the metal that once took him dissipating.

“There he is!” yelled the man with a cheese hat, Fredrick.

Henry ducked into the armory and slammed shut the door with a few button presses. There wasn’t a code in the world he knew for this ship, but he knew how to spell “close” alright. “He’s locked himself in armory seven,” said Fredrick.

“Who left this open? Guys, what have I said? Just shut the door. It’s not that hard.”

Henry managed to find a button next to a panel that read “RARE” and clicked it. The panel opened, revealing three weapons: a gargantuan sword, an under-barrel grenade launcher, and a sleek, red-and-gold Pew-Pew gun. Henry snatched it and opened the door. The Toppats the other one had been lecturing turned their attention back to him just in time to get gunned down. Henry, after making sure the way was safe, bolted.

He encountered quite a few people, but no one stood a chance against the Pew-Pew gun.

The man raced through one last door, skidded to a stop and then slammed the panel with the handle of his weapon. The door shut and the panel shattered. Henry took a deep breath and turned to strut down into the empty cafeteria but stopped dead in his tracks. Right Hand Man stood hardly a few steps away, a callous grin on his metal-clad features. “’Ello.”

Henry raised his gun. Right Hand Man’s arm extended, grabbed Henry around the middle, and slammed him into the floor yards away, smashing a table with his own arm as he did so. The Pew-Pew gun clattered to the floor so far away. Henry tried to get up, but the man was on him in a second, one foot pressed down hard on Henry’s abdomen, another arm raised to strike. “You shoulda stayed in your cell.”

Well, Henry would be scared, if Henry wasn’t extremely paranoid about being hunting down and captured _again_ and hadn’t hoarded a few gadgets. He pressed his hand down on his chest. Something clicked and metal washed over him, conforming to his body like a second skin. Hard plastic or something close created a mask over his face so he could still see in the nano suit.

“That’s not gonna help you,” said Right Hand Man. He raised his metal fist and–

Henry grabbed onto it, smirking. _Now look at who’s in control. …probably still not Henry, if he was to be honest, but he wasn’t currently a stain on the ground, so he could take his victories where he got them._

“Impressive,” Right Hand Man conceded. “But that’s not–”

The bottoms of Henry’s shoe burst into jets and Henry shot off, out the window and slipping straight out of Right Hand Man’s grasp.

Henry’s boots stopped using fuel and Henry, in space with no friction to slow him down, used his momentum to flee.

“There you are!” He heard Right Hand Man, who now hovered some distance away with both legs converged into a jet. He held onto his robotic eye, which now shot a few laser blasts.

Henry looked back just in time for one of the shots to hit him in the back. Henry was thrown onto one of the solar panels. He kept moving. But, as Right Hand Man flitted closer into his vision, Henry leaped, activated a knob on his boots, and slammed down. The solar panel _shattered._

Henry’s boots hit the metal exterior of the ship and… didn’t do anything. The nano suit no longer conformed to his body, and instead he was in a plastic bag. Well, technically, he was in a space suit with a hard helmet half made of clear material. He clung to the edge of the ship, his fingers through the slits in the metal grate.

“Y’know what? Nah.”

Henry stopped upon hearing Charles’ voice, loud and clear, over his earpiece. Charles, who just a few hours ago was convinced Henry had been dead, and now buzzed in the excitement of their mission.

“This calls for some bold action.”

Henry’s eyebrows furrowed. What did _that_ mean? What kind of bold action was going to get him through this OH WAIT NO, NOT THAT ACTION!

“I’m the bold action _maaaaan!_ ” Charles sang as his military prototype spaceship raced toward the space station–more specifically, toward _Henry_ –at full speed.

Henry yanked desperately at the grate, but nothing he did opened it. As the shadow of his friend loomed, he tensed and pressed himself to the metal of the spaceship, praying to make it through Charles’ plan.

Henry… didn’t die.

 _“Warning! Critical damage to core,”_ bellowed an alarm. _“Please evacuate immediately.”_

He did indeed get into the station–shoved hard into its interior so he landed in a heap on the walkway around the central core, his suit torn too badly for him to use and the helmet broken. Charles’ ship sunk into the broken core. The man fell out of the barely open top, his clothes and headphones ripped in places, but a great smile on his face. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he admitted with a cough.

As the alarms continued blaring, Henry and Charles got to their feet. Henry pulled himself out of his suit, wheezing and grimacing in pain. Charles stretched his shoulders a little. “Anyways, should probably find a way off this station before it explodes.”

They went into a hallway, where a double-wide hazard door slammed down behind them. One slammed down before them, but it was a little crooked. They could get their fingers under there if they tried.

Charles stopped at the panel. It made a weird beeping noise but didn’t open. “Looks like the door’s jammed.” He turned back to Henry for guidance. “This is the only way through.”

Henry looked at the door, and then at the ground near it. A vent, broken loose by Charles’ amazing plan, lay near it. Henry nodded to the opening. Charles opened it with ease. “I bet this vent leads somewhere… on the other side.” _Brilliant, Charles. Keep going._

“Crawling through the vents~!” Charles hummed as they made their way through the ventilation system, barely on their hands and knees. The ship shook as something else went wrong. “Oh boy, we’re running out of time.”

Henry opened the vent just in time to see a few sets of feet dart past, and one man fall before quickly getting up.

 _“Damage to core. Please evacuate immediately,”_ the station droned.

They emerged just before a walkway, absolutely smashed as one end caved, leaving three available pods and an empty space near them. One Toppat was on the ground, probably knocked unconscious by the stampede that rushed past him. Leave a Toppat to abandon another, right?

One of the pods was labeled “LUXURY” so that is one they weren’t getting on any time soon. A second was cracked, but a third near the end was working. They could tell it was working because the door slammed shut as someone ran into it.

Henry ran to the damaged pod, Charles at his side. Henry hit the button, getting a warbled “beep” noise in return. After another denial, he slammed his fist into the button. The pod opened.

He and Charles plopped down on the seats inside of it, both letting out a sigh of relief.

“Ahh, well, that was intense,” Charles remarked. “Can’t wait to go ho–”

A purple-hat Toppat grabbed Henry and ripped him out of the pod. Charles lunged, shoving the man off Henry, and slamming him into the wall. He picked up Henry and threw him back in the pod in time to get tackled by the offending Toppat.

Henry scrambled to get up as the door closed. Henry searched for the opening lever, but the pod was barely functioning. He looked out the window to see the two quarrel. Charles, holding the Toppat by the nape of the neck and one of his wrists, slammed the man face-first into the pod’s window. “Don’t worry about me!” Charles blurted out and looked around, a noise of pain escaping him as he was struck again by the squirming criminal. “I’ll find another way!”

Then, Henry’s pod took off.

Henry gasped and looked around, but it was no use. The station was leaving him, going farther and farther into the distance. Other pods popped out like frog eggs, drifting toward Earth.

“Henry? You there?”

Henry started upon hearing Charles’ voice and clasped a hand to his earpiece, holding it close as if just by hearing Charles he could have him there. It wasn’t true, but as long as he heard Charles’ voice, the man was alive.

“Man… that roughed me up,” Charles groaned. The alarms still blared around him. Why could Henry hear them? Why wasn’t Charles in an escape pod out in space already? “Got him, though. Gotta be another escape pod around here somewhere. We did it, though. We got ’em. Pretty good plan. Could say it was the greatest pla–”

_kkkkkkKRRRROOOOOCCccchhhhh_

The explosion lasted but a second before the earpiece’s signal fizzled out. Henry slammed his fist into the cracked window again and again. But he couldn’t break his way out the escape pod, he couldn’t just leave and find Charles. Even if he could, the man was gone.

_Charles was gone._

Henry rested his forehead against the inside of the pod. Charles was gone.

Then, the pod vanished and warm, wet air slammed into him. Henry gasped as he found himself in the air… flying toward the top of the metal ramp leading into the rocket.

Henry landed in a roll, ducking into the rocket. Someone started speaking a different language above him, but Henry ignored it and rushed for better cover. What was he–

“Oh, man!” said Charles, his voice ringing loud and clear through the earpiece. “Looks like every member of the Toppat Clan is on here!” The rush of relief to hear the man’s voice was quickly counteracted with the need to focus on their mission. Henry had helped take down the Toppat Clan once, and now they needed to do it once and for all. Now, it was up to Henry and Charles again. As it should be. “So, lookin’ at a schematic here, um… if you get to the engine room, you can shut down the engine and the rocket won’t be able to take off. Then they’ll all be stuck in here. So, I’ll cause a distraction while you make a run for it to the engine room, got it?” Henry crouched, zeroed in on the door that would lead him up, ignoring the clutter and clamor of the storage room. “…alright, I think I have one of these aboard. I think I can remote hack into it.”

_Crraaack!_

The attention of every soul in the room was caught as a metal human with a top hat burst from a large crate and started dancing. “Look at me! I am a dancing robot! Oh yeah!” it proclaimed. People gathered, interested and excited to see the thing. The crowd cheered it on as it danced. “Check me out! Keep looking toward me! Don’t get distracted by other things!”

Henry, noting the Toppat Clan’s susceptibility to being distracted by dance, snuck up the stairs labeled “ENGINE ROOM.”

“Yeah, uh, just keep heading up those stairs and you’ll hit that engine room in no time. I guess this rocket has an internal engine room? It probably manages the electronics or something? I dunno. I’m not a rocket doctor. Anyways,” Charles clicked his tongue. “–do your thing, buddy!”

Henry, both confused and disgusted to find he’d brought a red herring with him, decided to toss it into the engine. It immediately made a rather bad noise and began to smoke and slow down. A voice appeared over the intercom, “It seems we have some problems with the engine. Can we get the crew to look at that?”

Henry ran around to the ladder and pulled himself up.

 _“The_ _Rocket is launching in: two minutes.”_ The feminine, monotonous voice called over a loudspeaker.

Henry pulled himself up, the feeling of warm, fresh air replacing the dry, smokiness of his previous environment. The red ladder was gray and his circular passage square.

“Once we get to the top of this tower, we’ll cross the bridge and get to the rocket,” a feminine voice wheezed below him. “Hopefully the Toppat Clan will let us join them.” Henry didn’t look down, but he recognized Ellie’s voice. They had been on the run from the wall for a while, now. It would be nice to finally settle down–though with the people from whom he stole a gargantuan ruby might not have been his first plan.

As Henry and Ellie finally pulled themselves up and ran across a bridge connected to the rocket, they heard one of the Wall Guard call wheezily into his walkie talkie, “Да. They are here, on the bridge. Open fire!”

Something came in answer, but neither Henry nor Ellie paid attention to it. That was, until part of the bridge was destroyed by a canon ball. Ellie, on safe ground, gasped and turned around. Henry was falling.

No, wait, he was falling… up?

Oh, right, Henry and Ellie were thrown up into the air by a barrel, and Charles’ helicopter–doing no justice to their speed up–was above them. A canon dropped down from the base of the helicopter, catching both Henry and Ellie, who’d tucked into balls.

“Heh, so, funny story,” said Charles as they flew. “This canon was actually built to fire humans. It’s kinda weird. Hold onto your butts!”

The canon went off with a _poof!_ Strangely, only a little heat came in response; force was their largest factor.

Henry and Ellie burst through a colossal window in the side of the rocket, rolling to a stop amongst the broken glass when they entered it. “Direct hit! Now quick, guys, you gotta stop that rocket from taking off!”

Noise from within ceased.

The two got to their feet, only to find _an entire cafeteria full of Toppats_ staring at them. Ellie pressed her earpiece. “Um… we’ve got a little bit of a situation…”

A good half dozen of them got up, firearms in hand, staring down the duo. So, as Henry looked around the cafeteria full of enemies, any which of them could probably take them down without needing to move, an idea came to mind. They needed a _distraction_.

Henry shifted his feet and threw fist into the air. His right hand touched a button on his hip and dislodged the piece of tech so it hit the floor. _Emergency music player, don’t fail me now._

Ellie, as the electronic music started slow, but promised a raise in tempo, followed suit with a stance of her own.

Confused, the Toppats around them lowered the guns to watch the marvel as the music swelled. Perhaps the music helped. Who wasn’t a fan of music, after all?

_Ha-squeak!_

Spiting everything his instructors always told him about how dumb and distracting his move-set was, Henry danced. Ellie, thumping to the music, held her arms out toward Henry to draw more attention to him. Slowly, he gathered nods and people lowered or outright abandoned their weapons. Some copied Henry’s dance while others fell into beats of their own. Suddenly, the entire cafeteria was dancing. People on tables, others dancing together, some staying in place.

Henry and Ellie made their way through the thoroughly distracted crowd, slipping out into the hallway without a thought out of place from the dancing Toppats.

They stopped dancing as the music faded. “Situation sorted,” Ellie stated with a smirk.

They gasped as the rocket’s thrusters burst. They staggered, off balance, in the hall.

“Ah, guys?” Charles said. “The rocket’s launching. We gotta do something before they get into orbit!”

Ellie, braced against a cubby in the wall with a ladder down, said, “We’ve got to come up with a plan, quick!” Henry got up, his gaze set. Ellie mused, “Seems like Henry’s got a plan.”

Henry pressed his earpiece. “So–”

Charles listened from inside his helicopter, flying steadily higher. “Uh-huh… Yeah…. Yeah…. Oh, yeah! Ah, yeah, that’s a great idea! Alright, you guys do your thing. I’ll be ready.”

Henry and Ellie burst through the door to the cockpit.

The new leader of the Toppats, a shorter blonde fellow whose head was mostly masked from their sight back a baby blue top hat, sat in a chair facing straight up. Upon hearing the door open, he spun around in his seat, looking back. “Wh-what? Who’s that?”

Henry tackled the controls while Ellie tore Chief Sven out of his seat and pinned him. As Henry looked over the interface and pressed a few buttons, giggling to himself the irony of the situation in which the Toppats were going to be put, Ellie hog-tied Chief Sven.

The duo ran to the edge of the cockpit, where an emergency window was open. Ellie asked, “Did you set the auto pilot?”

Henry gave her the thumbs up.

“Alright, then. Let’s bail!” The two jumped out of the cockpit, Ellie going first, but both falling with arms and legs spread wide to slow their fall as much as they could. Charles’ helicopter, the blades no longer whirring, fell beneath them. Ellie and Henry grabbed on. Just as they were out of range of the helicopter’s blades, they flew back into action. The helicopter slowed to a stop before they could hit the ground.

Henry’s feet hit solid glass. He looked down, finding himself sitting atop the spaceship holding no pilot in the cockpit, nor anyone nearby; tied up or otherwise. A slight confusion set in before Henry realized Chief Reginald was probably outside of the ship, manning the controls and directing his crew before takeoff. Well, the ship was ready to take off now, right?

Henry stood on the very top, his scooter still holding spiked wheels beside him, a hammer now in his hand. He hummed and looked around. The glass was probably too heavy to break–it needed to be space-resistant or something–so that wouldn’t work. Still, he’d have to try. So, Henry raised his hammer. Then, as he swung, he felt something weird in the back of his mind, an instinct that kicked in at the weirdest times. His hammer swung up a little and hit something small and going very, _very_ fast. The force of his swing and the bullet that subsequently shot off into the mountain somewhere cracked and then shattered the glass beneath him.

Henry fell into the cockpit with a huff, his scooter landing nearby in a halo of broken space-glass. He got up and then strapped himself into the pilot seat. A metal trap door snapped closed to replace the glass he’d broken. Time for take-off!

Then, just as the rocket started to gain altitude, something hit it. The rocket swayed, unable to keep going forward but unwilling to back down.

Henry got up and ran to the emergency window. A tether attached itself to the base of the rocket! He plucked a sniper rifle from a cubby beneath the emergency window and pointed it down. It took a second, but he lined up the shot and fired.

The tether snapped.

Henry jolted as the rocket went up.

He ran back to his seat, strapping himself in and holding tight to the controls. He may not be a rocket scientist, or an astronaut, but thankfully, neither was Chief Reginald. Since no one would pilot the rocket except the Chief, who was used to the controls of an _airship_ , well… Henry’s problems were null. For the most part, of course. There was still an entire crew of people he’d need to talk out of killing him.

Hmm… shared wealth and no government intervention. That’s what they wanted in the first place, right?

Once they breached the atmosphere and the jets that lifted them high up into the air broke off, Henry untied himself and got up.

He’d just made it to the door when it opened, showing a single man with a black top hat. Immediately, he held a gun and pointed it at Henry. Henry held up his hands in submission instantly. “Hey, wait. Before you shoot me. You came here to get away from the government. To get wealth and live well. Right?”

The man nodded, not lowering the gun but thankfully not firing it.

“Well, how about a deal?”

“What… kind of deal?”

“You’ve been in a resort before, right?”

Evidently, the man _had_ been to a resort–a ski resort. He went there with his family one year. So, he’d been to a resort in the mountains. He’d heard of ones on the beach, the desert, the jungle… but was there one in space?

Henry said with a shrug, “We could have a total monopoly on the space resort market.”

The Toppat, his gun no longer in his hands, nodded. “Yeah, yeah… that makes sense. Hold on, let’s talk to the rest of the crew!” The two went to a ladder going down.

Henry’s feet hit solid ground–rather, metal that clanked beneath his feet to signal the massive airspace beneath him. A hot, wet wind blew into him. Henry glanced back to see a guard from the Wall standing on the other side of a gap in the bridge made by a cannonball. Henry turned again, running by Ellie’s side into the rocket ship and through the hallway. They better find the chief and pray for mercy. Though, Henry did steal their ruby and inadvertently caused their ship to crash, so…

Two men rushed into the hallway from a doorway leading in. “Quickly!” exclaimed Chief Reginald, looking down the hall.

“Hold it!” commanded Right Hand Man, a hand to Chief Reginald’s chest and eyes on Henry and Ellie. The chief didn’t fight him and instead turned his attention to the two. Right Hand Man whipped out his gun and took a step forward. “You’re not Toppats!”

Henry’s hands shot straight up in submission. Being not shot would be great, honestly. Ellie held her hands in front of her. “No-no-no-no! We’re here to join you!” She gestured to Henry. “We’re wanted, just like all of you!”

Right Hand Man didn’t step down, but Chief Reginald narrowed his eyes and looked Henry up and down. “Wait. You’re the guy that stole our ruby.” Right Hand Man looked back at the chief, confused. “Hmm… you do have some skills.” Chief Reginald shrugged. “We’ll let you join,” he narrowed his eyes. “–as long as you return the ruby.”

The _cli-click_ of a gun behind Henry and Ellie made them turn around. “Don’t move!” commanded Dmitri, holding a rifle, his voice hissing with a lisp due to the teeth that he’d lost from Ellie’s hit. Grigori stood beside him, one arm in a sling and the other holding a pistol pointed straight at them. Dmitir pointed at the two. “Those two belong to _me!_ ” he said, shoving his hand down.

Grigori growled, a lot calmer than his boss, “You are coming with us.”

Henry blinked. Well, either his karma was finally catching up to him or–

_Boooooochh!_

All eyes turned to the hole in the side of the rocket. A military helicopter hovered before them. _Charles’_ voice came from within. “Yeah, this is Charles. Following up on that disturbance we saw on the bridge. Yeah, turns out the Toppat leaders are here! Wait, is that Henry?” The helicopter’s speaker turned on. “Henry? Come on, help me take out the Toppats!”

Ellie looked to Henry. “What do we do?”

_Well, it was the Toppats–which was probably guaranteed if he gave away the ruby–the Wall–who’d more than likely kill them if not cripple them beyond hoping of escape–or Charles–who’d put in a good word for them if he helped._

Yeah, the answer was obvious.

Henry turned and waved at Charles, whose helicopter swooped in. “Alright, coming, get in!” Henry and Ellie leaped from the hole in the rocket to Charles’ helicopter, which quickly flew out of the line of sight of both the Toppat leaders and the Wall superiors. “Alright, I’ve got a plan. We’ve gotta shoot out these support beams! All units fall back. We’re going in for the big ploy!”

Henry and Ellie both manned a gatling gun. As Charles flew into position, they shot down the beams supporting the rocket. It fell, crashing into the ground.

The ruby was safe. Oh, and so was he and Ellie.

A swarm of helicopters, Charles’ included, flew away from the crashed rocket and toward a military camp site. “Yeah! Nice work, botha you!” Charles exclaimed. He talked into his headset, “This is Charles, reporting to base. I got a couple of friends with me, you’re never gonna guess who they are.”

The helicopter landed. Their feet hit the dirt and they walked through the campsite until arriving at a large tent. Henry stepped through first.

The massive tent roof shot up high above him. Light filtered in from the front of the tent. Quite a bit of it was blocked by the _massive red tank_ before him. Henry looked over it with a quiet _ooh_. If the airship was a tank, this would be it! Unfortunately, though he knew how to pilot the airship–he was a rather quick learner despite his best mode of previous transportation was an amazing scooter–and he had some idea of how to drive a tank, this tank looked a little different than the others he’d encountered–which, to be honest, wasn’t very many.

Henry pulled from his pocket a little yellow lever attached to a suction cup. He attached it to the end of the tank and tapped a button on the corresponding remote. The lever shivered and made a high-pitched trill before letting out a burst of electricity and energy, which threw Henry back and caused the tank to growl to life. The tank rushed forward on a mission, leaving Henry on the ground behind it.

The tank stopped and shot, blasting apart a quickly constructed tent-building. Soldiers in the vicinity whipped into a panic as the machine went on a rampage, flattening and blasting apart everything it neared in its ire. A helicopter flew overhead and was very quickly shot down by an automatic turret attached to the tank. Yep. Henry would _not_ have figured out all that.

Henry bolted from the tent and rushed out of the way of the falling helicopter. He managed to duck behind a broken piece of wall as Big Boy charged past. Unfortunately, he rolled straight into position next to a soldier, who caught one look at his face and turned his gun on him. “Hey!” Henry’s hand shot straight up. _Of all the tools he didn’t bring, a gun was among them. Well, he didn’t like toting about firearms when he could instead have gadgets like a wonky teleporter and a scrambler._

Then, just as the ravaged camp thought it could not get any worse, a giant metal egg the size of the tank crashed into the ground in the middle of it all as if attracted to the chaos that now reigned. The tank stopped before it. The egg pushed itself up on three legs before splitting in half and allowing the top part, armed with a laser, to shoot and strike at the tank. With a mind of its own, Big Boy fought back with speed and bloodlust.

“That’s, right! I–” said the soldier who held down Henry at gunpoint before being blasted by the tank. Henry was thrown clear out of the way, shooting past Charles and General Galeforce and hitting a wall. He got to his knees and looked around as the soldiers fled the scene of the battle between metal goliaths.

Henry got to his feet and darted to Big Boy’s smaller, tamer, dark green grandnephew–a military tank. The soldier within, holding a walkie talkie screaming about a retreat, looked around. Henry grabbed the man, pulling him out of his vehicle and hopping inside. The sounds of chaos died in the tank.

Henry stood up. The dusk sun glowed over the landscape, sending gold and pink over the sky and bathing the quiet land in a warm golden glow. Henry, perched in his bright white tank, plucked a pair of binoculars out of his _totally legitimately claimed tank_ and watched as a train, flanked by an entourage of vehicles, drove over the landscape, heading straight for the mountains. Now, in this train there was a little something special. Like… there! A golden cart with a coin stamped on it was the third cart in the train chugging along.

Grinning, Henry raced his tank forward, launching it off a small incline beside the road and straight into the fourth cart after the money cart, one of which being a flat piece of metal holding a giant gatling gun with a seat attached on a large pedestal.

Immediately, the vehicles in the caravan shuddered in their distraction. Henry crawled up onto the top of the cart, staring straight down the barrel of the gatling gun as the man wielding it turned on him. The man said something in an earpiece and activated the gun.

Henry raced down the cart, zig-zagging and hopping and ducking so that he was in no place at once or taking any clear direction other than forward. The man with the gun, confused and growing irritated, kept firing, but also kept missing. That was, until Henry launched himself off the cart, landed squarely on the man’s head, and jumped to the next one. Then, just as the mountain loomed above, he slipped off the front of the last cart and hopped into the space between it and the money cart.

_Almost there!_

The train rushed under a tunnel in the mountain. Then, as the train emerged upon a cliff overlooking a river, it slowed to a complete stop. Henry kicked in the handle of the last cart to keep the crowd from moving in and then hopped into the golden cart.

“So, you’re the one causin’ all the trouble!” the train conductor announced, a _very_ large machine-gun-esc object in his arms. “Ah didn’t expect ta have ta use _this!_ ”

Henry stared down the man who wielded a weapon almost as big as Henry. Though it came to no surprise considering Mac Beth’s near apish stature. Henry glanced around. There was a light on the weapon and wide satellite dish beneath the muzzle with a light in the center. Henry grabbed a mirror laying nearby and held it up. Mac Beth’s weapon activated, blasting the mirror with a laser augmented by the satellite dish, which in turn blasted straight into him, turning both him and the weapon to dust.

Henry looked around. The hallway was a little cramped. He supposed what was behind the two walls blocking off quite a bit of everything was just filled with money. Sweet! Well, that’s why he came here. He climbed up a ladder from one wall and poked his head out the top.

One of the windows from the previous cart opened and a man in a top hat yelled, “Oi!”

Henry pulled his hand back into the cart–tank? Right, tank. Ellie had been surprised to find out he had a tank and was impressed enough to help concoct a plan that involved using it.

Ellie looked around at the wreckage. “Well, that’s one way to do it.” Ellie hopped out and approached the overturned money cart. Henry popped his head back out. Ellie looked into the broken top. “Now how are we…” She looked back at Henry. “–gonna get all this money out of here?”

Henry hopped out of the tank and climbed up onto the cart, gesturing for Ellie to do the same. He clipped a Fulton onto the lip of the mangled top hatch. The thing inflated almost instantly, flipped the cart right-side-up, and then dragged them up into the sky. They zipped up quite high before stopping. Ellie looked at Henry. “So… now what?”

They climbed up so they were standing on the cart, looking over the horizon far, _far_ below them.

“Oi!” Two metal feet hit the edge of the cart. The two looked back to see Right Hand Man, none too pleased to see the two of them. “This doesn’t belong to you.”

 _Probably doesn’t belong to you, either._ Henry decided against voicing the line. Instead, he and Ellie squared up against the man he’d already defeated once. Well, when the man was still technically a whole man and not seventy percent robot. But, hey, what’s metal and advanced robotics and far too many years of fighting experience between enemies, right?

Henry and Ellie glanced at each other. When Right Hand Man made the first move to rush, Henry slid in, kicking up into his abdomen as hard as he could. Ellie leaped, landed on the new chief’s head, and used him as a jumping board with a laugh, “Happy feet!” Right Hand Man was forced down but attempted a retaliation–failing again as Ellie dodged with quite a bit more agility than the two had previously thought possible and knocking him down. Henry wound his arm back and yelled, “Stickmin… _punch!_ ” His fist connected with the side of Right Hand Man’s head as he got up.

_Bffffwooom!_

Henry and Ellie watched the two metal legs, free of Right Hand Man’s vaporized body, flop to the ground. Ellie remarked, “Seems like we’re out of the danger zone.” She knelt and messed with the pile of robotics before him. Henry watched her, concentrating but completely and absolutely lost. “That should do the trick!” she announced as the legs morphed and formed a jet engine, which had previously been used to get Right Hand Man there in the first place.

Henry stood in the front, one fist up and chest puffed out as the jet pushed them forward.

He closed his eyes, taking a breath of the air so far up. He sat down on a cushioned seat and opened his eyes. The air was no longer all around him–instead he was in a helicopter–but he _could_ feel it swimming past them.

“We’re entering Toppat airspace now,” said Charles, focused on their flight through the dark cloudy sky. Though, as they moved, they approached a lighter, slightly less cloudy day. “Altitude: 20,000 feet. Airspeed: Nominal.”

Henry stared at his lap, a toothpick between his teeth. He’d hunted down Chief Reginald mercilessly, bringing down the leader of the Toppats. The organization itself wasn’t brought down, but it had been a hard hit. Now, Henry was asked to chase down another target, after being picked up from the Wall by Charles. But this target, he heard, was not going to be as easy as that sniveling coward, Reginald. This one was much more dangerous. In fact, they had dueled once before, but Henry had defeated Right Hand Man. How he came back was a mystery, but how he was even tougher was a bigger one.

“Visibility’s clear. Standby for drop,” Charles continued. “I hope you don’t mind helping out again. I called ahead and got the all-clear from the General. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions. Don’t worry, he’ll fill you in when you arrive. You’ll be dropping in on the outskirts of the Toppat launch site. We’ve also got a squad waiting for you when you arrive.”

Above Henry, a red light turned green. His gaze snapped up at the signal.

“Alright. Time to drop,” Charles announced.

Henry got up and approached the now open helicopter door. Down far, far below, a mountainous jungle crossed by rivers lay below him. With a parachute strapped to his back–a real one, Henry made sure of this–he hopped out of the helicopter and dove. Once low enough to the ground, he it snapped open. The device slowed his fall and preserved his life, even as he dipped into the tree line. Before him, far into the trees, he saw the fanciful, pearly white top of the Toppat Clan’s building-shaped rocket. Though, as the parachute caught on branches, and said branches mercilessly whacked him, he was forced to let go and drop. He landed on his feet and tipped forward onto his hands to ease his momentum rather than stop suddenly and risk breaking his knees.

When he looked up, he found three other people, soldiers in dark clothing and weirdly police-like hats. “Ah, there you are,” rumbled the man nearest to him. “Henry. Really kept us waiting, huh? Nice to meet the legend in person.”

A communication device rang, and Henry pulled out a device with two screens on either side and an AUX channel, measuring signal strength and volume. A bearded man with a mustache and in a squat hat with a badge on it appeared on the left screen with Henry appearing on the right.

General Galeforce said, “Henry. Glad to see you made it safely. Let me introduce you to your squad. First off is John Pilksin. He’s been doing this for thirty years and he excels at stealth. He’ll be your go-to man for anything involving stealth. He’ll be going by the codename… ‘Frog.’ Next up is Gordon Banks. He’s a master when it comes to electronics. He knows his way around any interface, and he’ll be very helpful when it comes to hacking. He’ll be going by the codename ‘Eel.’ Lastly, we have Amelia Estaban. Demolitions expert. She’s known to tackle problems head on and will blow a hole in any problem. Her codename… ‘Turtle.’”

Then, John “Frog” Pilksin asked, “General… what’s all this about?”

“Ah, Frog. I’ll run through the briefing again. We’ve recently learned of the Toppat Clan’s plan to launch a space station into orbit around the Earth. If they’re able to get this station operational, they’ll become unstoppable. They’ll be able to attack any place around the world easily, with no way for anyone to counter-attack.”

“The Toppats?” Frog echoed. “Weren’t they brought down by Henry?”

“Unfortunately, no,” said the general. “Only their leader was captured. They’re now being led by the previous Right Hand Man.”

“The Right Hand Man?” asked Frog. “I thought he was defeated.”

“Seems someone’s fixed him up and given him cybernetic enhancements to boot. He’ll be quite a handful to deal with.”

“…so, we’re just cleaning up another mess,” Frog stated.

General Galeforce pointed out, “Well, it is what you do best. Your mission is to capture or eliminate the Right Hand Man. We’ll be launching an all-out assault on the compound at the same time, our focus being on preventing the rocket from launching.”

“…sounds like a good time,” Frog relented.

“That’s why we’re sending all you,” General Galeforce confirmed. “Good luck out there… Henry.”

The signal was lost, and Henry put away the device. The squad made their way down the trail toward the rocket.

As they neared, they found helicopters flying overhead and heard gunshots firing. “The raid’s starting!” Frog announced. “Let’s get in there and find it!”

The trio followed Henry as they made their way closer to the cluster of buildings and the rocket, staying out of sight in the trees. In one squat building with a boom barrier blocking the road was a man with a gun standing at the window. He surveyed the road, watching for incoming traffic and enemies. Frog commented, “Oh. We need to get past that guard.”

The trio stopped as Henry ran out into the road.

Immediately, the man held up his gun, but Henry waved his hands in front of him. “Wait, wait, wait!” The white-hatted guard lowered his gun, still staring down Henry. Henry cleared his throat, waving his hands and saying, “Wo-lo-lo!”

The man blinked. Instead of a white and cyan-banded top hat, he now wore the same military-type hat the rest of Henry’s squad wore. His gun shifted into another as well. “Narwini.”

Henry gave them the thumbs up and ran across the ground, his squad and new guard partner at his heels. When they approached the closest building–a giant white building with a SAM turret and a large satellite–Frog stopped and turned to the guard. “You! Stand guard!”

The guard saluted him with an “Erectus!” and went to scanning the area for any approaching enemies.

Frog looked around at the empty room with scattered papers. “There’s no one here.”

Gordon “Eel” Banks said over his shoulder, “They must be out fighting.” He went back to messing with the computer.

Amelia “Turtle” Esteban surveyed the room. “Looks like they left in a hurry.”

“I’ve gotten into their security feed!” Eel exclaimed. “It looks the Right Hand Man is holed up at the warehouse.” He turned to Henry. “The halls are completely empty. We should be able to get close without being detected.”

Henry nodded and headed into the door. But, as his feet passed the barrier, he no longer felt cement beneath him nor the sound of war in his ears. Instead, his shoes hit cool metal and twilight glowed over the dark landscape, the crowing and croaking and buzzing of the jungle’s occupants filling his ears. He didn’t send a glance around at his surroundings before climbing off the side of the train cart and landing in an empty cooler labeled “FILL WITH BEER ONCE AIRBORNE.”

He heard someone with a scar crossing over his face calling, “Alright, lads! Train’s here! Time to get everything packed up before it gets too late!” Henry shut the top of the cooler, keeping him safe and hidden inside.

Once everything went quiet around him, Henry poked his head out of the cooler. It was dark and quiet, void of life but _full_ of treasure. Henry looked around at the inside of the rocket. He had seen the remnants of the Toppat Clan–few to none from the air division that he helped capture–loading all sorts of valuables into it a while ago. No sign of anyone he’d seen from the airship.

Henry slipped out of the cooler in a roll. He stood up and looked around. So much treasure, so little time. The Toppats would be here by daybreak. If Henry wasn’t out of there, he was dead. So, Henry searched around. He had a few gadgets, but on second thought, perhaps turning stuff into leaves would become too confusing, and stacking stuff into a trans dimensional box would take time. However, Henry found a large vacuum nearby. He recognized this! This was the gadget he’d taken from the government to open the hatch! It sucked up the Toppat guarding the hatch–why was there a Toppat guarding a hatch in an airship thousands of feet in the air, it made no sense–as well, but that was fine. He was alive, probably.

Henry strapped the Succpack over his shoulders and grabbed the wide-mouth end of the hose. It didn’t take long–an hour or two, tops–before everything from a small mask to a massive crate had been sucked into the vacuum and stored away somehow. Was it a pocket dimension, like the cube had? Did it turn everything into leaves or something? It wasn’t heavy.

Regardless, he sucked up the last of the loot and made his way to the only other object there: a golden sports car. He threw the vacuum into the passenger door and hopped into the car. The keys were hidden within, probably for ease of use. After all, who would steal a car in space?

Henry drove through the giant shutter-door–which he’d thankfully remembered to open–and to freedom. Though, as he left the large space, he found himself suddenly compacted, as if the car had grown a roof and squeezed him tight. In fact, the seat was gone and now he was in a tube growing ever smaller, pushing him out like the last bit of icing through a piping bag.

Finally, he squeezed out into open air.

Henry landed on a metal platform with a huff. He stood up and looked around. Futuristic panels ran from high, high up all the way down the circular “room” in which he stood. A gap was presented before him to another metal platform that would lead to a door. Hopefully, that was the way to their vault, where they would no doubt be hiding the emerald of which had become his fixation.

He turned around and looked at a paper stuck to the wall. “VENTING SYSTEM” was written on the top with a diagram of the inside of the ship–at least, where this venting system went. He traced his finger along a path going from the “Living Quarters” to the “Gravity chamber” that led into “Weapons” and “Oxygen” and flowed into the Big Fan, where Henry now stood. To the side, right in the direction of the metal platform in which Henry needed to cross, was the vault.

Henry grinned and tapped the paper. There! His mission was going to be complete.

He turned and walked to the edge. He tipped his head down and then immediately pulled himself back. He wasn’t afraid of heights, but usually heights didn’t involve a giant fan or a futuristic metal tube that could do God-knows-what to intruders. Instead, he looked to the metal platform, which was too far to leap across, for the record.

Henry then pulled out an object. He’d gotten it from the military when they captured him and sent him to do their dirty work. As a sort of middle finger, and the intense desire that he could not shake off, Henry snatched a giant ruby from their vault instead, royally annoying the government and the Toppats both. Now, he had one more jewel to add to his collection, and this little device would help him.

Or would it?

He looked down at the object. It was simple enough; a gray rectangular prism with a panel of three large, lime green buttons and a red circular button in the center. A wire, bent from time in storage and his pocket, with a bulb at the end stuck out of its top. He’d used it only once before when sneaking into a museum. But even then, he had this weird feeling of… nervousness. This teleporter… the thing had been in beta testing when he first got it, and then it broke after his first use. But was his first use in the museum? Memories that felt foreign, but he knew as his own flitted through his mind. Getting stuck in a cement wall… appearing in the middle of a shooting range… popping into a void dimension… appearing on an asteroid with a swarm ready to be slaughtered by a giant beast… so many ways of becoming trapped or facing his eminent demise, all prevented just by keeping his finger off the trigger. But now, as Henry had his dwindling arsenal of gadgets that made less and less sense, he found himself trapped. He needed to use it. Obviously, those memories couldn’t be real; he was alive! But…

Henry growled and then smashed it into the ground as hard as he could. He didn’t need the stupid thing, not when it could teleport him into a whole new dimension or timeline or into space where he could choke, or–

Wait.

The broken fragments fizzled into lime green light.

Henry’s stomach lurched. Then, he was falling.

Henry’s eyes burned from the sudden appearance of light as he fell from so, _so_ high up. The hot, wet air whipped past him as he fell toward the jungle. Then, he hit stone and ice, the harsh cold and flurry of snow biting into him. He bounced and landed on dust and sand in the hot, dry desert. He pulled himself to his elbows, looking straight up at a small army gathered inside a large tent. They gasped and those with guns held up their firearms. Henry got to his feet; hands stuck up in the air. Then, his shoes burned, and heat was all around him, stealing the once cool shade of the tent and replacing it with molten lava and smoky skies. He yelped and bounced off the ground, trying desperately not to burn himself. He ended up hitting a low-hanging tree branch and falling into the dirt. He tried to take a breath, but salty water was all around him and he was sinking so far from the surface. Then, the weight was gone, and he was floating, choking to death in the vacuum of space. He landed on hard asphalt, gasping the city air, hearing a loud, quick beep from a truck transporting money to or from a bank vault in New Mexico behind him. He shoved his hands into the dust to bring himself up, only to look at a land of plastic bricks, and then one of aliens in space. Henry curled up into himself, shutting his eyes tight, clamping his hands against his ears, and trying to make himself as small as possible while blocking out the nightmare around him. Still, he couldn’t block out the cold, the heat, the wet and dry, the stale and fresh, smoke and cinders and dust and–

It stopped.

Henry felt hard, warm dirt beneath himself. The air stopped shivering and the temperature stayed hot and dry. The wind was slow and quiet, and it stayed that way, with a consistently bright light source.

Henry opened one eye to see the desert. Slowly, he looked around and his body unfurled. He gulped and studied his surroundings, confused. Where… was he?

Henry got to his feet, grimacing. Ah… well, he was rather banged up, wasn’t he? How’d that happen? Well, he did hit a mountain, but that didn’t explain why his feet weren’t burned and why he wasn’t soaked in sea water anymore. Not only that, but his gray turtleneck was gone, replaced by a scrappy black t-shirt.

Henry got to his feet. Before him was a tall concrete wall. Stretching on both sides was a large, squat building. A road littered with dust and sand curled away. Henry dug into his pockets. He pulled out the beta version of the teleporter. He had a purse of holding, which he found held explosives and a shovel and the keys to a wrecking ball. An empty sack of money was there, too. He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket. The rough layout of the building and where guards were stationed was laid out before him. His watch read _12:35 PM, 5/25/2013_

Henry looked up, mouth agape, as he stood before the Bank _one year and almost two months in the past._

Henry dug his hand into his pocket. Well… maybe he could get it right this time?

Nah.

Henry turned on his heel and walked away, tossing the teleporter aside as he did so. Let someone else become Fate’s plaything. Frankly, he was done.

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy-do, I was writing a bit in the future for "Different Path, Different Story" when Henry popping up in front of the Bank as a Toppat got into my mind. Then I thought about that silly transporter, and then I got into the Henry animation memes and found myself thinking of the different endings. Soooo here we are! This is all sixteen endings of Henry Stickmin put into one 38 page, 11,714 word document. Whoof. I wanted to post it yesterday, but the 21st was a Monday and "DPDS" takes up my Monday/Wednesday/Friday upload schedule. Also, this is WAY longer than my usual one-shots or literally any chapter I've ever written, which tend to be ~7-15 pages long. But I couldn't bring myself to break it up.
> 
> It was really challenging to write this, and a jerk to research and edit and think of what parts I wanted to keep and where to put the transitions. However, it was also really fun to write and satisfying to finish, even if there were times when I just wanted it toss it out the window. Legit, writing the transition between "Toppat Civil War" and "Revenged" as well as the transition between "Free Man" and "Valliant Hero" was _so much fun._ The transition from "Toppat King" to "Toppat Civil War" is my absolute favorite, though. If any of you are writers, I would strongly suggest doing a challenge like this; take a CYOA and then combine all the endings into one fluid document. It's difficult but rewarding! Then again, I also love challenging myself to go to ever more odd and outlandish challenges and prompts. So, I might just be a loon.
> 
> I swayed between "Breaking the Bank" and "Escaping the Prison." Technically, there's only one choice/one ending in BTB, so it's not even a CYOA. "Escaping the Prison" is the first game with branching routes and multiple endings. That and it has The Box(tm). Basically, EtP is the only one with a _choice._ But then I thought back on it, and yeah. BtB _does_ have a choice. You can pick the right answer, or you can shut off the game. You can break into the vault, or just go and do almost literally anything else. Since it's the game that started it all, I thought it was more appropriate.


End file.
